Produced Water Management Options and Technologies

Coral Reefs in the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem: Conservation Status, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…These PWs are usually treated on site, and released to the environment, carrying substances that have been shown to be deleterious to aquatic organisms during controlled laboratory toxicology tests (Kennicutt, 1994;Fleeger et al, 2001). It is estimated that the PW: oil production ratio in the US is 7:1 (Veil, 2011), meaning that more than 12 million barrels of PWs can be potentially entering the GoM on a daily basis. The effect that these effluents can cause to marine environments such as CR is still largely understudied (Lee and Neff, 2011;Brooks et al, 2012;Cordes et al, 2016), and deserves further attention not only in the US waters, but also throughout the GoM.…”

The Role of Membrane-Based Technologies in Environmental Treatment and Reuse of Produced Water

“…The ratio of water to oil in the process of oil extraction is reported to be around three to one (Veil, 2011;Dickhout et al, 2017;Al-Ghouti et al, 2019). However, the amount of PW generation increases as the oil well ages ( Figure 1A; Igunnu and Chen, 2014;Kusworo et al, 2018).…”

“…The environmental concerns associated with the diverse oil and gas extraction processes include threats to human and ecological health and contamination of water, air, and soil (Mondal and Wickramasinghe, 2008;Fakhru'l-Razi et al, 2009;Cordes et al, 2016;Mcintosh et al, 2018). Wastewater generated during the extraction of oil and gas is the largest waste stream in the oil and gas industry and is typically referred to as produced water (PW) (Veil, 2011;Dickhout et al, 2017;Al-Ghouti et al, 2019). PW generally contains substantial concentrations of petroleum components (such as phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and volatile hydrocarbons), production chemicals (such as biocides and corrosion inhibitors), dissolved gases (such as CO 2 and H 2 S), salts (such as sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride), dissolved minerals including heavy metals (such as barium, zinc, lead, iron, etc.…”

“…Some studies (Global Water Intelligence, 2011; McCabe, 2020) predict that this ratio will be 12 to one on average by 2025 considering crude oil reservoirs. Even in 2004, an average of 9.5:1 ratio (water:oil volume) in the United States has been reported (Veil et al, 2004;Veil and Clark, 2011). The PW volume could even reach 98% of extracted product in fields that are close to being depleted (McCabe, 2020).…”

Reusing oil and gas produced water for irrigation of food crops in drylands

“…water injected for enhanced oil recovery and for hydraulic fracturing) (Engle et al, 2014). In terms of volume, PW is by far the largest by-product or waste stream associated with the O&G industry (Veil, 2011). In certain conditions, PW can be reused for beneficial purposes such as agricultural irrigation, but, the volume of PW currently reused this way represents only a small proportion of the total PW generated.…”